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Cord-cutting in action? US pay-TV registers record losses in Q2

Just because you’re paranoid – it doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get you, as the old saying goes…

The words could be said to apply to theperennially rattledUS pay-TV industry, now that the second quarter (Q2) of 2015 gas seen pay-TV companies in the region post their worst ever quarterly video subscriber losses, shedding 658,450 subscribers.

Indeed, according to IHS, Q2 2015 is the first time non-cable pay-TV operators lost video subscribers, since satellite operators entered the pay TV business in the early 1990s.

The latest IHS State of the US Pay TV Operator Market report states that both of the satellite operators in the United States lost significant numbers of video subscribers in Q2 2015. Although Dish attempted to mask losses by including Sling TV subscribers, IHS estimates that the company lost 285,000 total subscribers, while DirecTV lost 133,000, without NFL Sunday Ticket promotions to fall back on.

AT&T U-verse TV experienced its first quarterly loss in Q2, and the company now claims to be focused mainly on high-value subscribers. “AT&T competes with the larger cable operators that are becoming more savvy,” comments Erik Brannon (Senior Analyst, Television Media, IHS) . “However the company is less effective against both Comcast and Time-Warner Cable, because U-Verse cannot match the broadband speeds offered by those companies, its service is no longer new in the pay TV market and its prices are very similar to incumbent cable subscriptions.”

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